


Smell of Leather and Smoke

by Rlillies



Series: The Last of the Old Guard [2]
Category: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Timeline What Timeline, no beta we die like tog members, pre-tlou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26302228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rlillies/pseuds/Rlillies
Summary: The past month didn’t feel real to Nile. Everything happened so fast, her dying with her throat cut open and her blood going everywhere. Then her coming back to life, Andy basically kidnapping her, learning what she is with the lack of a why. Then everything with Merrick and subsequently Booker’s exile.Nile truly didn’t feel as betrayed by Booker as the other three did. She didn’t know him for very long, and she understood where the man was coming from. He felt lonely and depressed, the Frenchman most likely has severe depression and along with the fact that he couldn’t die, that he was alone and having to deal with Nicky and Joe at the same time.------------This is a companion piece to my longer fic 'The Last of the Old Guard', you don't have to read that to understand this one nor do you even have to know what The Last of Us is. There are elements of tlou, but only at the very end.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Last of the Old Guard [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1908496
Comments: 9
Kudos: 37





	Smell of Leather and Smoke

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea in my head for the past few days, which obviously means I'm going to whip out a fat one-shot for it. Like said in the summary, this is a companion piece to a larger fic. You don't have to have read that one to understand this at all, nor do you have to know what TLOU is.

**Twenty-four years ago, One year before the outbreak and a month after Merrick**

The past month didn’t feel real to Nile. Everything happened so fast, her dying with her throat cut open and her blood going everywhere. Then her coming back to life, Andy basically kidnapping her, learning what she is with the lack of a why. Then everything with Merrick and subsequently Booker’s exile. 

Nile truly didn’t feel as betrayed by Booker as the other three did. She didn’t know him for very long, and she understood where the man was coming from. He felt lonely and depressed, the Frenchman most likely has severe depression and along with the fact that he couldn’t die, that he was alone and having to deal with Nicky and Joe at the same time. 

Nile has been in the same vicinity of the couple for a few weeks and she is already exhausted and just  _ done _ with them. She is glad that she was able to weasel Booker’s new phone number from Copley, so she can at least message him. The youngest beside her, and he’ll understand her. Her problem is that she doesn’t know how to start the conversation. It’s not like she can just send ‘hey’ to a man that was exiled from his family for 100 years. 

She lets out a sigh and looks up from the cramped couch she has been sitting on. The small box tv set to some random channel in a language that she doesn’t even understand. Andy sits off to her left in an even smaller chair, still sore from wounds that no longer heal. Her head is bent over some book that looks older than Nile’s grandma. 

“Nile,” the Italian accent of Nicky comes ringing out from the tiny kitchen in the safe house. “What do you like in your omelets?” 

Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly if you really think about it) Nicky enjoys cooking for his family. Even simple breakfast foods like omelets. Which is something that Nile said the day before that she missed them. Her heart warms a bit, appreciating the fact that he remembered and went out of his way to make omelets that morning. 

“Uhh… what do you have?” She calls back. 

“Just name stuff you like and I’ll put what we have in.” 

She raises her eyebrows apprehensively. “Well, tomatoes and spinach, any type of meat ya got. I’m too picky on that. Mushrooms would be nice… honestly just put whatever in it. I’ll eat it.” She means it, her history of being a marine still so fresh that she knows not to turn down good and free food.

She hears the loud laugh from Joe, and she thinks she hears a soft chuckle come from Nicky. However, she can’t be too sure about that. A few more minutes go by with Nile still staring at her phone, trying to think of an excuse to send Booker a message. She gets taken out of her spacing by a warm plate landing in her lap. 

Her head looks up at the cooking culprit. Nicky stands in front of her wearing the smallest smile on his face, he looks at her and gestures for her to take a bite. Wanting to see her reaction. To appease the older immortal, and because Nile was also rather ravenous, she picks up the fork and cuts a small bite from the omelet. 

Once she places the egg version of pure  _ heaven  _ in her mouth she lets out a loud and drawn out groan and moan combination. That she would be significantly more embarrassed about if the food wasn’t so damn delicious. She quickly starts on another bite, tasting the spinach and tomato, the sausage and mushrooms, and some pepper? And is that avocado? 

Nicky pats her on the back on his way back into the kitchen. “Don’t eat too fast, you do not want to choke.” He looks back at Andy “Usual for you?”

\--------

_ Finally _ Nile was able to convince Andy, Joe and Nicky that she was ready for an independent mission. The relented and let her go on a small reconnaissance mission in the southern area of France, she was a bit hesitant because she doesn’t know French. But she was not giving up the opportunity to go out on her own for just a little bit. 

The plane ride from Oslo to Mariselle was just over five hours, not the worst flight Nile has ever been on, but most definitely not the most enjoyable. She was cramped into a small seat with no leg room, the man next to her smelled like rotten fish and there was a kid behind her that kept kicking her seat. She has dealt with active war zones with a calm composure, she has gone into a building filled to the brim with agents ready to shoot and kill her with almost no plan, and the short plane ride almost made her snap and want to stab her hidden pocket knife right into her jugular. Hoping for a smidgen of peace. 

When she got off the plane and stood in the middle of the airport. The overwhelming feeling of not fitting in hits her like a truck. She is an obviously black American woman in Europe, not knowing a lick of French, and she has a number of weapons on her. Not like everyone side-eyeing her knows that last fact, but it’s still unnerving for her. 

Before she can talk herself out of it, she whips out her phone and dials Booker's number. The anxiety of not knowing what the  _ fuck  _ is happening out numbers the nervousness of talking to Booker again. She brings the small burner phone up to her ear, the dial tone ringing in her ear. She prays that he will answer the unknown number. 

A groan is the first thing Nile is answered with, she assumes that he was asleep. It is pretty early. “Bonjour? Comment as-tu obtenu ce numéro?” 

_ Fuck, of course he’ll answer in French.  _

“Booker, it’s me, Nile.” She rushes out. Hoping that he doesn’t freak out too much about her contacting him. 

The next thing the Frenchman says to her is in a similar rushed English as hers. “Why are you calling me Nile? Is Andy okay?” 

She breathes out a sigh. “No, no, Andy is perfectly alright. I uh… I got sent on my own mission. And… fuck I'm so sorry. This is insensitive. I’ll just.. I’ll just hang up.” She quickly snaps the phone shut cutting the connection. Her hands shake a bit, the feeling of being watched makes her grab her dark backpack straps tighter in her left hand, the right still gripping the phone. 

Her phone rings less than a minute after she hung up. She cheeks the caller I.D. and sees it's Booker. “Fuck.” 

She quickly accepts the call and brings it back to her ear. “Are you okay Nile? Are you safe?” The concern in his voice evident even over the shitty speaker on the phone. 

“I'm okay, I'm just.” She pauses, trying to compose the next sentence without sounding desperate and like a fucking  _ damsel. _ “I got sent to France and I don’t speak any French and I don’t know where to go.” Her words bled together a bit with how fast she talked, but he seems to have understood enough of what she said to let out a hum of understanding. 

“Where in France are you?” 

She looks back at her ticket that was thankfully in English. “Mariselle?” 

“Well aren’t you a lucky one, I’m in Martigues. It’s about thirty minutes away… do you want me to come get you?” She smiles a bit, glad that someone she knows is so close. 

“Would you?” 

“I’ll be there in forty. Can you find somewhere outside to wait?” She nods her head, forgetting that he can't see her. Nile quickly answers with an affirmative, he doesn’t say anything. He just hums and hangs up. 

She quickly walks in the direction she believes to be the exit. Everyone else is walking that way, and if she squints she can somewhat see a sign saying something about taxi pick-ups in English. Once she gets outside, she looks to her left and right for somewhere to sit and collect herself. 

There is a lonely bench off to the left of the sliding doors. She marches herself over to it and slumps down. She leans over and holds her head in her hands. 

_ You are an ex-marine. You’ve gone through boot camp, actual war-zones, and so much fucking worse than this. Just because you are truly alone since Merrick doesn’t mean shit. It's just French, and plenty of French-people speak English. It’s not the end of the world.  _

Nile’s mini-pep talk to herself makes her feel ten-times better. She takes a deep breath and reaches over for her bag. She rifles around in the bag, pushing aside her gun and change of clothes until she gets to the details of her mission. Figuring if she is going to be sitting there for the next thirty minutes she may as well review her mission. 

She knows it’s a quick reconnaissance job. Get in, get the information, get out. But she likes to know everything about what she has to do, know everything about what type of information she is looking for. Her eyes skim over the summary of what she has to do. Get into a small private party, listen in on a private meeting between some shady political leaders in France. There is speculation that they are trafficking something. Either drugs or people from Copley’s guess. 

Nile’s phone rings again, she rushes to pick it up. Thinking it was Booker, she starts to say his name in greeting, but thankfully before she says anything she hears Andy's voice through the speaker. “You alright kid? You didn’t call to check in when you landed.” 

“Yeah, I’m good Andy. I said I could handle this on my own, I’ll call you after I do the recon.” 

“Alright, be careful kid. Just because you can’t die doesn’t mean you can be reckless.”

Her phone starts to make the low beep meaning she is getting another call. She quickly says ‘bye’ to Andy before the woman can question the sound. As soon as she hits the end button on Andy, she accepts the call from Booker. 

“Bonjour!” She answers, somewhat mockingly of the man. 

“Bonjour, where are you?” 

“I think I’m where the taxis and other cars would pick-up passengers. I'm near the further exit to the east.” 

“Copy, I’m coming around to you. I’ll be in a red Clio.” She looks to her right, away from the rising sun. She sees the red Cilo coming as quickly towards her as he safely can with civilians all around them. 

Booker waves at her, his eyes obstructed by his typical sunglasses, he sports a leather jacket. She rushes around to the passenger side and flings the door open. Once she falls into the seat, he starts to drive out of the airport. “My recon job is in Aramon, if you want to start heading there.”

“Yeah, there should be an old safe house to the north of there that you can stay at.” 

Nile looks over at him, he seems to be doing okay. Considering the fact that he was only a month into his 100 year exile. “Yeah Andy told me, uh, in case you were worried. The others don’t know I’ve called you, so this won’t make things worse.” 

“I figured as much. I remember what it was like to be new with them.” 

She just nods and starts explaining what it is she is having to do, going into detail her small recon mission. Somehow the discussion of her mission lasted most of the hour ride. The last ten to fifteen minutes are filled with the two youngest immortals exchanging plans on what exactly her plan is for her recon. Booker ends up offering his support for the job, since she still hasn’t learned any French just yet. Nile reluctantly accepts his support, requiring him to let her take the lead and for the two days before the party that he teaches her as much French as possible. 

\------------------

The night of the party is a cold night, the beginning of winter slowly rolling into France. The cold air makes Nile truly regret not looking into a long sleeve dress, or even a pants suit. She already had her dress purchased and was waiting for her in a small boutique in Aramon. It’s a simple yellow dress, the smooth satin fabric licks her ankles when she walks. The dress is loose enough that she was able to sneak in a tank top and shorts underneath in case she needs to do something that a dress would make significantly more difficult. She even allocated a time earlier that day to have her hair done, her hair was professionally braided with the addition of yellow and gold beads intertwined by a French black woman. 

Booker regretfully wasn’t able to obtain a suit in the allotted time before the gala. The two came to the conclusion that Nile will be wearing an earpiece so Booker can hear what is going on around her, and inform her in French that she doesn’t pick up. Nile thankfully picked up on quite a lot of the basics of French in the past two days, obviously she is not fluent or even close, but she understands most basic greetings. 

The sky is already dark when the duo start driving to the large mansion in western Aramon. The further west they drive, the more dense the trees get around the road. The darker the road gets, when they get to the driveway of the mansion, Booker pulls the car up and drives slowly up the hill. When he gets over the hill, the bright lights of the mansion and the cars surrounding are a contrasting image versus the dark of the night. 

She double checks that she has her mini-hand gun in the hidden pocket in her purse, she pats her leg to be sure her thigh holster has her standard handgun. She pats her other thigh double checking that her knives are in that thigh holster. When she is sure that she is good to go, she looks over at Booker and nods. Silently telling him that she is good to go. 

She steps out of the car and walks towards the door. The security guard puts out his hand. “Carte d'invitation.” 

She smiles to herself, her marine training coming in handy by not showing her small amount of pride. These few things are stuff that Booker taught her. “Oui ici.” She hands over the white and gold invitation that Copley was able to get for her. He grabs it from her and looks it over, the man then looks over at her and nods. He escorts her into the party. 

Once she walks through the door and into the entryway, the magnificent looking foyer draws her eyes up. She snaps herself out of her admiration of the decor. She walks forward into the life of the party, many different accents of French bound around her. She keeps the confusion off of her face as she glides into the main room. 

“Can you hear me?” Comes the crackled voice of Booker from the small device in her ear. She lets out a small hum as a confirmation. Unable to actually verbally confirm that she can now hear Booker. He seems to have heard her confirmation, because he keeps talking. “I am behind the building, hidden in the woods in case anything happens.” 

A strapping young man comes up to Nile, he wears a classic suit with a black bow-tie. He bows a bit in front of her, he grabs her hand and leaves a light kiss on the top of her hand. “Bonjour Mademoiselle” The man has a silky voice that would entrance Nile if she wasn’t on a mission. 

“Bonjour Monsieur, comment allez-vous?” She responds in broken French with a heavy American accent. 

“ _ Oh god, your french is disastrous”  _ Grumbles Booker in her ear, she can envision him rolling his eyes. 

“Êtes-vous Américain, Madame?” The man says with a smile. The first part of his sentence Nile doesn’t understand, but she can quickly infer that he is asking her if she is American. Or she hopes he is. 

“Oui, parlez vous anglais?” Nile responds. 

“Oui, I have studied English in secondary.” A waiter walks by them with flutes of champagne on a serving platter. They both grab their own flute, and take small polite sips in tandem. “Why are you here?” 

Nile pauses for a second, collecting her alibi. “I am a representative from America, I need to speak to Monsieur Dupont about a trade deal?” 

“Oh Oui! He is upstairs in a meeting with other representatives, I can escort you up there. A belle femme like you shouldn’t be alone.” Anger prickles up Nile’s spine, this boy dares to say that she can’t protect herself. 

_ “Fucking idiot.”  _ Is Booker’s response to the young man in front of her. 

She doesn’t let her disdain show on her face, she gives him a light smile. “Non, I will be okay.” She gently pats the boy's face, “Merci.” She leaves with a light kiss on his cheek. 

Nile turns around at a reasonable speed, and elegantly makes her way over to the grand staircase leading upstairs. “Book?” She whispers, “I’m going to go into the room beside the meeting room and listen in, if anything goes wrong I should be fine but I’ll be on the south side of the building.” 

“ _ I’ve got your back no matter what, mon cher.”  _ The last bit is lost on her, Nile is pretty sure it is a french term of endearment. She doesn’t leave time to think about it when she approaches the room guarded by two men.

Nile briskly walks with fake concern and worry. “Monsieurs! Monsieurs! Somebody passed out at the top of the stairs!” The two security guards look at her and see no malice or trickery in her facial expression. They then look at each other and rush over past the corner and to the staircase. 

“ _ Really, that’s what you went with?”  _ Nile has to restrain herself from biting back at Booker. She looks at the door that the men were guarding and sees a second door to the right. She quickly rushes into the room. As soon as she gets in she turns back around and locks the door. Nile looks around the room and sees a vent shaft leading into the room she needs to listen in on. 

“I'm in the room to the right of their meeting room, I’m about to get into a vent to be able to properly listen to them.” Nile whispers into her earpiece. Booker gives her a simple copy. She looks back down at the vent and sighs. She knows she is going to have to take off her dress, there is no way she can crawl through that without catching on something or making a sound. Along those lines she will also have to take off her shoes. If she wasn’t so nervous about be heard she would let out a frustrated fuck. 

Nile quickly strips off her dress, revealing her emergency outfit underneath. A simple black tank top and matching black shorts. Nile methodically unscrews the screws holding the front of the vent shaft open, trying to be as quiet as possible. As soon as the front of the vent is sitting off to the side, she crawls in. 

The vent isn’t tall enough for her to comfortably crawl on her hands and knees, instead the ex-marine crawls on her stomach in a stereotypical ‘army crawl’. The other room is only four or five feet away from the room she was in. She gets as close as her can dare to the other vent. She can see a large group of both men and women sitting around a table, talking in fast French. 

She really hopes that Booker can hear their conversation, because Nile understands exactly none of it. Other than a few words that are close enough to their English translation. She hears an accented version of ‘cocaine’, followed shortly by a distorted version of ‘human’. If Nile’s were to guess what this group was dealing with, it would be both a drug and human trafficking deal. Just by what she can hear. 

Nile is about to crawl back out of the vent, having to slowly back up when she freezes. She hears the door open on their side. She crawls back up to see who has burst into the room. She can see the silhouette of one of the body guards and the man she was talking to. They both quickly walk to the head of the table where Dupont was sitting and whisper in his ear. As soon as the guard is done talking to Dupont, he looks straight at her. Or the vent, but Nile can feel her blood rushing out of her body. 

Before she can start to back up the other bodyguard the she didn’t even see come into the room rips the grate off. She suddenly feels very, very exposed and in immense amount of danger. The guard reaches in and yanks Nile out by her hands. As soon as the man grabs her she yells out in English to Booker. 

“THEY HAVE ME! SOUTH SIDE THIRD ROOM TO THE--” before she can finish her sentence she is silenced by the guards tearing out her earpiece and put a beefy hand over her mouth. 

Bad move on the guards part, because that means he only has one hand restraining her. She bites the hand on her mouth, when he instinctively reacts by pulling back, she pulls out her knife with well practiced movements and stabs him in the beefy neck. As soon as he goes down the other guard reacts by coming at her, she pulls out her gun that was strapped to her other thigh and shoots him in the chest. The men and women around the table let out a scream of terror, their only protection gone. 

With the two bodyguards down, Nile feels much better about her chances of getting out unmaimed.

The multitude of guests react by either dropping underneath the table or by reaching for their own guns. Nile reacts with the training of a Marine and a newly made immortal by running at the window. Shooting down a few men in her way/

Right before she could jump out of the window someone gets in a lucky shot in her shoulder. All she does to indicate that it happened was let out a grunt of pain. 

Nile jumps out of the window, praying the Book heard her warning and was coming to get her. She breaks a few bones when she impacts with the ground, it was nowhere near as painful as when she jumped out of Merricks penthouse. 

She lies there groaning for a few seconds while her bones heal back together. She hears more than sees the gasps of the guests that saw her jump out of the window from the main party downstairs. 

Once her legs fuse back together, she jumps up as soon as Booker comes running around the back of the house to her. 

“Car’s this way!” Is all he says running right past her and into the woods, trusting that she was healed enough to follow. Which she is. 

She follows him further into the dense forest, blindly following the blond. They get to the car, Booker jumping to the driver's seat while Nile all but falls into the passengers. He quickly starts the car and rips out of where he was parked. Driving at far too high of speeds to still be in the forest and not even on an established road. 

Soon enough he pulls out onto the road that leads them to the mansion. 

Almost immediately after he swerves onto the road, light floods the car. Indicating that someone was behind them. Right after they light floods the car, bullets start to rain down on them. 

“Booker!” 

“I know! There’s an automatic in the backseat, shoot as many as you can!” 

Nile doesn’t need anymore prompting to crawl into the back seat that already had an entire layer of glass on it. The back window already shot out. She grabs the automatic and starts shooting at the tires of the car behind them. 

She hits the first two front tires, causing the car to spin out and crash into the ditch. Before Nile or Booker can relax another car comes speeding around the corner. Nile does the exact same thing, right before the car spins out someone gets a shot on her. 

She falls back and everything blacks out. 

  
  


\-------- 

  
  


When Nile awoke, she feels Booker driving slower than before. An indication that they got out safely. She sits up from where she was bent over the back seat with a groan. 

“Man, I feel like I was shot in the head.” 

Booker lets out a choked laugh, Nile joins along with Booker. As soon as she starts snorting from laughing to hard she stops. A dark blush rising along her cheeks, she is suddenly very thankful for the darkness of night from hiding the blush from the man beside her. 

“Where are we going?” Nile asks. 

“I can’t take you back to the safe house in Aramon, it could be compromised.” She nods, not really losing anything that was there. Everything she needed she put in a backpack that she threw in the car. “I’m gonna take you to my apartment in Martigues.” 

She hums in agreement while she climbs back into the passenger seat. A chill runs through her that she shivers, bringing her hands up to rub at her arms. Trying to warm up her body. “Makes sense.” She finally says. 

He looks over at her, seeing the shiver of cold that runs through her body. Which makes sense with the fact that she has blood cooling on her body, only wearing her under shorts and tank top. Booker tears his eyes away from her, not wanting to stare for too long. Nile doesn’t even notice the gaze that Booker had on her, too focused on trying to warm up. 

Booker quickly shrugs off his leather jacket and holds it out to her without a word. She looks over at him, about to decline but decides to take it without a word. She snatches the leather jacket out of his hand and shrugs it on. Feeling a bit bad about the blood that will get on it by her wearing it. 

The leather jacket was loose on Booker, which means on Nile it is even looser. The sleeves falling right at her knuckles, just pulls the jacket tighter around herself. Subtly inhaling the scent of leather and cigarettes. For some reason the scent brings her comfort, she settles into her seat. The jacket wrapped around her acting as a barrier to the outside world. She closes her eyes and lets sleep wash over her. 

  
  


\---------

  
  


She gasps awake, her eyes blown wide and her hand gasping at her neck. She coughs up imaginary water, the feeling of drowning felt so real. 

“How do you deal with it?” Nile rasps out, her voice hoarse. 

“I used to drown it out by drinking… now that doesn’t even work. The dreams become less frequent the longer it goes on that we don’t meet her. It doesn't get better, it just gets more bearable.” Booker replies, his attention completely focused on the road. 

Their conversation gets interrupted by the soft buzzing of Nile’s phone going off in the glove-box. “Shit! It’s probably Andy. I need to answer this,” She reaches into the glovebox but pauses and looks over at Booker. “Don’t say anything, they can’t know I’m with you.” 

She hits accept right before the call goes to voicemail. “Hello?” 

“Nile! Are you okay? You should have called earlier.” The concern that Andy holds for her is heartwarming, but frustrating. Nile is a grown woman, maybe not to these people, but she is 26 for fucks-sake. 

“I’m okay, they caught me listening in. I was able to get out though with only a few scrapes.” Booker chuckles off to the side at ‘a few scrapes’ she had a bullet go through her head, but whatever. 

The voice on the other line freezes and says nothing for a minute. Nile draws in a breath, hoping the woman didn’t hear Booker. “Nile, are you with someone?” 

Nile answers quickly, probably too quickly. “No! Why would I be with someone right now? I’m just driving back to the safe house normally, in a normal car, by myself.” Booker has to bite his lip to keep another laugh in, not wanting to make the situation worse for Nile. 

“Kiddo, you gotta get better at lying off the job. I know you’re with someone, and I have my suspensions. Nicky and Joe are out of the house, if that changes your answer?” Nile pulls her legs up and under her, so she is sitting on them. She fiddles with the zipper of the jacket, thumbing it between her fingers. She frantically looks over at Booker for advice, who just shrugs. 

“Uhh, what would you say if it was Booker?” Nile anxiously replies. 

“I’d say put me on speaker.” Nile visibly relaxes and she does just as Andy asked. She clicks the button that puts the phone on speaker. 

“Hey Andy…” Booker says sheepishly. He keeps one hand on the wheel and brings the other to scratch at his head. “How ya doing Andy?” 

“I’m good Book, how are you doing on your own?” 

“I uh, I’m trying to get better. I stopped drinking almost a week into my exile.” Nile looks over at Booker with a shocked look on her face, surprised that she didn’t even realize that in the past few days she spent with him. 

“Damn Book, I’m proud of you. Did you keep an eye on the kid?” 

“I’m not a fucking child!” Nile snaps. 

“Yes, yes, I know. How did it truthfully go Book?” Booker shoots Nile an apologetic look, apologizing for what he is about to tell Andy. Nile just shrugs, knowing she can't keep Andy from knowing the truth. 

“She did good, infiltrated well and caught on quickly when I was teaching her some french earlier this week. Only downside was when she got caught, she ended up having to jump out of the building. In the car we were chased, Nile took out both cars, but one of the guys got a lucky shot in and she took a bullet to the brain.”

Andy whistles on the other end. “Damn, better than I thought.” 

“Better?” Exclaims Nile

  
  


\--------

  
  


Nile fell asleep again in the car after the conversation with Andy. The night having exhausted the woman out more than she originally thought it would. Booker looks over at the young woman curled up in the passenger seat with his jacket wrapped around her like some form of shield from the world. 

Even with blood and sweat marring her normal appearance, Booker still thinks she is beautiful. 

_ Non? Sebastien, she is but a child in comparison to you! You are over 200 years older than her. Most of all you wouldn’t even deserve her.  _

If Booker wasn’t trying to stay sober he would have no doubt pulled out the flask he used to carry on him to drown  _ those _ thoughts out. Unfortunately he’s trying to get better so he can be with his family again. So he can try to get  _ better. _

He looks back at the dark road, only a few minutes away from the town his apartment is in. Once he pulls up to his parking spot, he looks back over at Nile. His original plan to wake her up out the window when he sees how serene looking she is. He lets out a long sigh and turns off the car. He grabs Nile’s bag and hides the gun in his back seat. 

He swings her bag over his shoulder and puts his keys in his front pocket. Booker walks over to Nile’s side of the car and opens the door. He leans down and swiftly maneuvers Nile into his arms. The same way he did with his kids and wife back then when they would fall asleep in uncomfortable positions and areas. 

He gently cradles her in his arms, constantly astonished that such a badass and volatile woman can look so soft. She turns into him, her head going into the crook of his neck. Her warm breath caused goosebumps to travel down his spine. One of her hands grips his jacket that she is wearing, the other on his own shirt. 

He quickly makes his way up to his second story apartment, wanting to lie her down in a proper bed as soon as possible. He gets to his door and does an awkward shuffle of getting his keys out to unlock his door. A minute of fumbling finally finds the door unlocked and opened. He walked in and closed the door with his foot. 

Booker makes his way to his room, not caring that it is only a one bedroom apartment meaning if he puts Nile in his bed he’ll have to sleep on his tiny-ass couch. He lies her down on his crumpled up mess of a bed, unmade from after he scrambled out of bed to get Nile from the airport. With the bed unmade, it allowed him to lie her down and put the blanket over her without jostling her too much from her sleep. 

Once Booker deems her comfortable, he briskly leaves the room, shutting the door on his way out. He walks into his kitchen wanting to get a drink and pauses, remembering that he poured out all of his liquor a week and a half ago, after his two weeks of depression binging. The blond lets out a low groan, unable to get his cursed thoughts out of his head without the assistance of his old friend. 

Instead of drinking, he grabs his pack of cigarettes off of his kitchen counter and heads out to his balcony. He lights up the cigarette and puts it between his lips, huffing in the nicotine. The small high he gets from the nicotine does almost nothing to the thoughts he wants to silence. But he knows that just because he has a bad day doesn’t mean he can ruin any progress he has made. 

\--------

When Nile gets back from France, both Nicky and Joe meet her at the airport. Relief in their eyes. She takes in a deep breath and pulls the leather jacket tighter around her. After that night Booker just let her have his jacket, saying that she didn’t have anything weather appropriate since she left her jacket in the safe house they had to abandon. Nile certainly didn’t complain, the jacket gave her a sense of home and comfort that she hasn’t had since everything happened. 

She walks quickly from the gate, meeting Nicky and Joe in the middle. Joe pulls her into a huge hug, squeezing her tight. “It’s good to see you sunshine.” The nickname ‘sunshine’ is something new from Joe. New but not unexpected, he has been trying out different nicknames with Nile, trying to figure out something he liked for her. 

Nile pulls back and smiles at him, her smile giving validity to the new nickname she’s been awarded with. Nicky gives her a soft pat on the back. “Let’s get to the car and get back to Andy.” 

Nile nods in agreement, wanting to sit down and talk with Andy after the phone call the other day. 

Joe leading the way to the car, Nicky looks at Nile and asks, “By the way Nile, where did you get that jacket?”

\----------

A few more months went by without Nile being sent on her own mission, which she honestly isn’t complaining about. Since if Booker wasn’t with her in France, she doesn’t know where she would be now. 

She has been keeping in contact with Booker, each time one of them gets a new number they will send a reminder message to one another to stay in contact. Currently she is waiting for Joe and Nicky to come back with everyone’s coffee. They’ve gone to Morocco and are sitting in a small cafe, Nile is still wearing the leather jacket that was gifted to her from Booker, even though the weather down in Morocco is much warmer than up in France. She can’t bear to take it off. 

She thinks for a second to complain to Booker about the heat of where they’re at, but thinks twice against that. She fiddles with her phone when she feels the light vibration indicating that she has received a text. She looks down, knowing it to only be one person. 

_ From: Blond-Frenchman  _

_ Has Nicky gone on a long tangent yet about how ‘coffee has changed’ and that now it’s ‘fake and artificial’?  _

Nile stifles a laugh with her hand, Andy just side eyes her. Knowing that she is texting Booker and just looks the other way. 

_ To: Blond-Frenchman  _

_ Not yet, should I try to escape?  _

_ From: Blond-Frenchman  _

_ Trust me, you can’t out run that man when he wants to express his love of coffee. I swear one time he made Joe travel with him to Ethiopia just to get coffee beans.  _

_ To: Blond-Frenchman  _

_ Damn, really?  _

_ Oh shit, I gtg Nicky and Joe are coming back.  _

_ From: Blond-Frenchman  _

_Good luck_ _ kid  _

_ To: Blond-Frenchman  _

_ Stop calling me kid  _

Nicky comes up to her and passive-aggressively sets her iced mocha-latte down. Now that Nile knows the extent of Nicky’s love of coffee, she understands his reluctance to order her mocha. The only way she was able to get him to do it was by guilt tripping him and saying that it reminded her of home. Where he eventually gave in and ordered it for her. 

“Boss, have you seen the news about some fungus mutating?” Joe asks as he sits down. Having just heard the news himself while waiting inside the cafe. The news is playing on a small tv. 

“Hmm I haven’t, if it’s anything we need to address, Copley will send us a message.” 

  
  


\-----------

The mutated fungus that originally was of no concern for the group quickly grew into a small amount of panic. The fungus spreading over the world in the matter of a month or two. Copley told them they were needed in Seattle, said there was a huge problem with a militia forming and hospitals being overrun by these…  _ things _ . 

Before they board the plane, Nile makes sure to send a message to Booker. Her life she has watched apocalypse movies, and she has an inkling of an idea of where this could potentially go. She wants to be sure that Booker knows where she and the rest of their family are. As soon as she sends the text to Booker, she in turn gets a message from him. 

_ From: Blond-Frenchman  _

_ Copley is sending me to New York City, said the hospitals are being overrun and needs some help containing this fungus.  _

Nile lets out a breath of relief, happiness flooding her that Booker will be in the United States with them if shit were to hit the fan. She feels the vibration of another text message, which confuses Nile because Booker isn’t a ‘double texter’. 

_ From: Blond-Frenchman  _

_ Please be safe, keep Andy, Joe and Nicky safe as well. I don’t know what is happening in the world right now.  _

Her heart yearns to see his face again, if only to give him a comforting hug. The overhead speaker announced that their flight is boarding. The four stand up, Andy with her ‘guitar case’ disguising the labrys, long-sword, and the scimitar safe on her back. The other three have backpacks stuffed with clothes and other essentials. 

Before Nile boards the place, she looks back down at her phone to send a quick ‘<3’ in response to Booker. She looks back up at the other three looking back at her, waiting for her to catch up so they can board. While she walks on the catwalk, she pulls the leather jacket tighter around her. Breathing in the lost scent of Booker. 

Nile has a very bad feeling for what they are going to be walking into when they arrive in Seattle. 

**Author's Note:**

> all of the french are just google translated, I also did a minuscule amount of research for this so if anything is wrong oops   
> i'll also say that i got joe's nickname from another fic. i can't remember for the life of me which one it was so if anyone knows please let me know so i can credit them. i just love love concept of joe giving everyone nicknames and i love the nickname sunshine for nile  
> *Bonjour - Hello   
> *Comment as-tu obtenu ce numéro? - How did you get this number?   
> *Carte d'invitation - Invitation card.   
> *Oui ici. - Yes, here.   
> *Bonjour Mademoiselle - Hello Miss  
> *Bonjour Monsieur, comment allez-vous? - Hello sir, how are you?   
> *Êtes-vous Américain, Madame? - Are you American, Madame?   
> *Oui, parlez vous anglais? - Yes, do you speak English?   
> *belle femme - beautiful woman 
> 
> comments and kudos are always appreciated! my tumblr is r-lillies if anyone wants to bother me about tog or tlou


End file.
